The Old Man Talks Politics. Again

 Well friends and neighbors it has been a long time since I’ve done one of these scintillating blogs full of pithy observations and wise comments. Most of the time lately I’ve been writing bad poems and throwing them away. But today I decided to take a break from that kind of futility and spend some time on politics, a whole other kind of futility and frustration. So here are a few thoughts.

Why do our politicians running for office send out advertising that completely neglects to mention with which party they are affiliated? I’ve seen ads from folks running for offices ranging from county council to U.S. senate that have no elephant or donkey or whatever clever animal it is that has been adopted by the Green Party or the Libertarians. And shouldn’t they have an animal? Maybe a snowy owl or a dolphin for the Greens and perhaps a passenger pigeon for the Libertarians? The Green Party mascot would be obvious in its symbolism. The extinct passenger pigeon maybe not so much. Anyway, the lack of party identification in print ads is disturbing. Are the candidates so afraid of being offensive to one group or another? Or are they afraid of being prejudged in a stereotypical way? Well I say, show your party you cowards.

Social media is a great place to watch the furor over the presidential race. Normally kind and considerate folks on both sides of this one turn into rabid, raving zealots when they post comments about the two major candidates. A whole new level of hatred is reached almost every day. Name calling, accusations of crookery, allegations of insanity are pouring out in a steady stream. And this stream is not just aimed at the candidates but at their erstwhile supporters who may not be crooked or crazy in any way. And if a more calm individual points out that one of his friends is sounding vitriolic then the conversation dives into “Well I’m only posting this because so – and – so posted a really hateful thing about my gal/guy.” I guess the way to alleviate divisiveness is to add more fuel to the fires of silly arguments. Of course the true believers on both sides don’t think it’s silly at all, and they may be right. But they sure don’t sound rational when they get on their rants. There are rational discussions out there but they are buried in the heaps of craziness, so they’re hard to find.

Now I’m not too big a fan of either of the major party candidates. And when I tell my friends and acquaintances that I’m thinking of voting for one of the alternatives they begin their standard lecture. “If you vote for that third party gal/guy then you’re just going to help that horrible other gal/guy win, you freaking idiot!” Yes they call me an idiot. Again, I might be an idiot. Or naive. Or misguided, even. But friends I’m gonna vote the way my logical brain works. If I don’t think those big guns are the right one I’m not going to give either of them my vote. If the one that you think is the wrong one wins, well I’m awfully sorry.  But don’t blame me. Blame your own damn party for finding the worst possible candidate in the first place. Believe it or not there were actual reasonable possibilities out there when this whole shebang got started. And there just might be a reasonable choice still available in one of the non-major parties. So stop with the lectures please.

Finally, I have to weigh in on that “not standing for the anthem” brouhaha. This is another one of those “issues” that is driven more by the media than by its actual relevance in this deeply screwed up world. You probably don’t want to hear my position on this one. But you’ve come this far down the page so you might as well hear me out. Who cares if a bunch of football players don’t rise for the anthem? This is America, remember? Free speech. You do recall free speech, right? If those folks feel strongly about an issue and want to use this as way to protest it’s okay by me. They know the feelings they’re going to fire up with this behavior. They know the attention they’ll get. And you absolutely know that the media will exploit every tiny angle of this issue until, finally, it goes away. So be tolerant. If you don’t like the behavior don’t watch the damn game. If you think the guys are right then buy some tickets for the next game even if you think football is just violent ballet. Really. It’s that simple. And yes you can voice your displeasure on Facebook or Twitter no matter which side you’re displeased with. Have at it. This is America. But I won’t be reading your posts on the subject because I don’t really care about this one.

Now go have a fine, fine day.

Mass Obsessive Compulsive Zealotry: A Disorder for Our Times

 We are divided. Every event and every issue breeds predictable reaction. No compromise, no conversation, no mediation can bring the sides together. In fact no one is trying to bring people together. We all emphasize the differences and refuse to move from our positions. We all think we are absolutely, without a doubt, right. It’s insane.

Throughout history there have been instances of widespread insanity. They were labeled “Mass Hysteria”. I think we’re seeing an aberrant form of that aberration. I call it “Mass Obsessive Compulsive Zealotry” and it’s seen all over the world, especially the English speaking world.

Not only do folks refuse to consider compromise they take great pleasure in vilifying those who might disagree. I’ve heard good, kind people (usually) call their fellow citizens fools. idiots, a-holes, sinners, crazy and worse. And it’s not just Democrats talking about their Republican neighbors. Nope I’ve heard exactly the same epithets from the other side.

We’re a passionate people. We get worked up about issues large and small. Often we get the most worked up over the smallest issues which distracts us from the really important ones. But it doesn’t matter how big the issue. We’re divided. And there is no leader that seems to know how to bring people together in a quiet, reasoned way to find some sort of common ground. Discord happens over and over and we treat every issue the same way. Doesn’t the cliché go something like – insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting to get different results?

And I haven’t got a clue about how to fix anything. I look at the gun control issue and I see Mass Obsessive Compulsive Zealotry on both sides. No one wants to take a small step. All or nothing seems to be the mantra. There are numerous laws on the books restricting all kinds of weaponry. When was the last time you saw rigid enforcement of those laws? If we’re not enforcing laws we already have who could expect new laws to be effective? But it doesn’t matter about that. New laws aren’t going to be put up for a vote because there is no one leader who can effectively argue for common sense compromise. The leadership all is suffering from the same mental disorder.

How about issues of constitutional importance? There is a basic disagreement over whether the Constitution is a fixed document or a flexible document. Well the answer is actually quite simple. The Constitution has an established procedure for making changes. It’s called the Amendment Process. But no one has the patience to follow that. One side is rigidly denying any change. The other side is looking for ways to make changes without following the process. It happens over and over again. There is no one leader who will state that the obvious solution is right in front of us. “MOCZ” strikes again.

Every issue – immigration, equal rights, government spending, taxation, tattoos, marriage, and divorce – has polar opposite sides. No one gets near the middle. We scream, swear and demonstrate. We refuse to consider any possibility of finding a little common ground. We blame each other for intransigence. No leader ever emerges with a plan for compromise. But it doesn’t matter because that leader would be up against “MOCZ” and he or she would be shouted down before anyone could hear the plan. Sad, really sad.

Well, I’ve had my say. I’m interested in reading your comments. And I’ll do my damnedest to try and understand your position. Really I will. I’ve been in therapy and I think I’ve got the “MOCZ” under control these days. Not sure about my other phobias and disorders but that one seems to be in remission.

Now have a fine day.

An Agnostic Calls Out - Watch out! This might be a poem.

An Agnostic Calls Out

By jim bourey

It’s time for a prayer

I think. A heathen I am, an agnostic

for sure. But these days need faith

of some sort, of the vaguest or most

definite sort. So do it now. Do it

with me. Pray in the simplest way. Say

the name of your own cosmic controller.

Then say something like –

A little help here

please. We’ve got big trouble with hate.

We’ve got folks hating in the name of some

previously peaceful gods. We need some

changes. Help us out. I know You can.

If I can convince myself to pray

then I guess anyone can. And those

of you who have been practicing

the prayerful art better get at it

a little more intensely. It’s time.

We need faith these days. Definite

faith. Or vague, if that’s all you have.

If you have none at all send out

some positive energy. Whatever

that may be. It’s time for that too.

A SPECIAL DAY

Howdy friends and cyber-neighbors. It’s a special day today so I thought I’d celebrate by spouting off a little bit. What’s the special day, you ask. Well it’s the first day of the last year I can claim to be in my sixties.Yep, another decade is fast closing out.

When we arrive at one of these milestone years we have a tendency to notice how things have changed. We notice how technology caught up to us and zipped right past at an alarming rate. We notice how young folks are so different from us. And we notice how they’re so different from how we were when we were young. Or so we think. We also assess our physical situation. We might stand naked in front of a full length mirror and look at how kind aging has been to us. Then we laugh like hell. If we run into someone in our own age bracket we might suddenly start comparing our ailments and infirmities. Seems to be something we just can’t control.

Some of us might think about the state of entertainment, politics, business. But that gets depressing in a big fat hurry. So we turn off the TV, find a favorite bluegrass album (Gibson Brothers in my case), grab a good book and settle our blood pressure down.

Then in a quiet moment (there are lots of quiet moments when you’re fast approaching seventy) we might recall the good times and the wonderful things we’ve seen and experienced in our lives. Of course we can’t fully do that exercise in recollection. Hell, we can’t even remember where we put the car keys let alone that little kiss Jane or Trudy or Linda gave us behind the bleachers in ninth grade. So, if we’re inclined to write about this stuff in poetry or memoir, we make up some memories. Who’ll check? Anyone who was around back then is either dead or has as forgotten most of what they knew.

Another reverie on one of these special days may send us to thoughts of the future. We’ll think about how we still have things we want to do, places we want to visit and other milestones we want to watch in the lives of our children and grandchildren. Good luck with that, right? But we go ahead and make our plans knowing that we have very little control over what’s to come. And then when we’re about halfway through making our “to do” list we decide that something is missing. Yep, we dropped the pen on the floor and we don’t really feel like bending over to pick it up. So we decide it’s time to take a nap. And we do.

Have an exceptionally fine day. I know I will.